Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Stone Lady Crumbles

The controversial mugshots of former President (?) Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

While the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was known as the Iron Lady, former President and now Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can be called the Stone Lady. She is compared to a stone because of her facial feature. Most often than not, her face was devoid of emotion. In order to look authoritative, her head is always up and her mouth expressionless as if to be conceived as “masungit” or “mataray”. I guess her prolong heading up is the reason why she got this disease on her neck bone since this is not her natural posture. Naipit baga ang mga nerves sa leeg kakaingos niya upang maipagpalagay na matapang kuno at nasa kontrol.

After her infamous mug shots were spread in some major newspapers and in the internet, the once powerful woman of Asia is a picture of sick, sluggish, depressed, anorexic and downfallen leader. It is ironic that the same DOJ (Department of Justice) circular No. 41 which was promulgated during her administration is the same basis on which she and her family was bar to leave the country. In essence, she was fried on her own oil!

With numerous cases filed against her, the Stone Lady is crumbling. She was pronounced to be very sick by her doctors in St Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City although the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) warned that if these doctors were telling lies about her true conditions, they could lose their licenses. Militants want her to be treated as ordinary accused. Special treatment accorded to former head of state must not be granted on her since her presidency is under question. If former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo manipulated the 2004 election against actor Ferdinand Poe Jr, then she could not be a genuine president of the Republic of the Philippines because she is considered a cheat.

Only few Filipinos resent what the Commission on Election (Comelec) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has done to file a case against her. Even her constitutional right to travel was taken away by the DOJ on the premise that she might elude her cases. As Senator Ping Lacson puts it, “Ang nakakaawa kay Gloria Arroyo ay walang naaawa sa kanya.”

Majority of the Filipinos believed that justice must be served whoever you are. The wheel of justice is now against the Arroyos. What is more depressing for the former president is not the power that she had before and lost but more on the tarnish that was placed on the name of her father, former President Diosdado Macapagal. The good legacy left by her father was overshadowed by her greed to stay on power. As we put it, karma takes its toll on her.